The technology relates to a vehicle reverse assistant that detects a rear end of a towed object and a rear obstacle on the basis of information from a rear side sensor to avoid collision with the obstacle, when an own vehicle reverses while towing the towed object.
A drive assistant has been known which detects vehicles traveling in adjacent lanes and traveling behind an own vehicle using a rear side sensor such as a millimeter wave radar mounted on the traveling own vehicle to inform a driver about the vehicles approaching the own vehicle.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2016-16829 discloses, as the drive assistant of this kind, a technique of informing and alerting a driver of an own vehicle, for example, about vehicles traveling alongside the own vehicle, at a blind spot region that is difficult to be visually confirmed by the driver, or about vehicles in proximity within left and right lanes adjacent to the own vehicle when detecting such vehicles. The technique allows other vehicles to be detected on the basis of data scanned by both rear side sensors provided respectively at left and right sides of a rear bumper.
In addition, when the driver intends to set a select lever to a reverse (R) range to reverse the own vehicle, a monitor provided in, for example, a car navigation system displays an image captured by a rearview camera. The driver confirms the image behind the own vehicle displayed in the monitor while reversing the own vehicle. During this time, the rear side sensor continuously monitors whether there is an obstacle in proximity to rear sides of the own vehicle, and alerts the driver with a warning when detecting the obstacle in proximity to the own vehicle.